Profile: Emibloom Photography

Emibloom Photography focuses on making women look beautiful through high school senior portraits, family portraits and model photography.

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Malorie Armendariz, 26, owner of Emibloom Photography in action during a photo shoot on Sunday, Nov. 8. Emibloom Photography specializes in high school senior photography, family portraits and model photography.(Photo: Polo Orta / For the Sun-News)Buy Photo

LAS CRUCES - Malorie Armendariz, 26, a Las Cruces native, said she started Emibloom Photography three years ago as a way to pursue her passion for photography while helping to make women feel beautiful.

Armendariz specializes in high school senior photography for young women, as well as family portraits and female model photography.

“The reason why I got into women’s photography is because I was tired of seeing women look at magazines and admire other women — and you know that’s 50 percent Photo Shop — and I thought to myself, ‘Well, what if they saw themselves in a photograph and they admired themselves?’”

Empowering women to feel beautiful and confident in their own skin is something Armendariz said she also wants for her 9-year-old daughter Emily, who served as the inspiration behind the name ‘Emibloom.’

“I want her to admire herself,” she said. “I don’t want her to be comparing herself to other people.”

Armendariz said she meets with each client at their homes for a consultation in which they share ideas, plan outfits and determine a location.

“We get a Pinterest board, we design it together, we get all kinds of pictures on their board and we see if we can match locations, or even lighting,” she said. “They’ll let me know that this is a specific look that they want and I’ll have to produce that for them.”

Clients also have the option to bring different outfits with them to the photo shoot.

“I tell them to bring a suitcase because we want to have fun just trying on different outfits,” Armendariz said.

Clients can also get their makeup done by one of Emibloom’s two makeup artists, she said.

Armendariz said she is currently busy photographing high school senior pictures.

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Malorie Armendariz, left, owner of Emibloom Photography, shows a client a photograph on her camera. Through photography, Armendariz said she hopes to make women feel beautiful and confident.(Photo: Polo Orta / For the Sun-News)

“I have fun doing that because you get to see their hopes and everything and they're young,” she said.

She also photographs models who need help building their portfolio, she said.

“Some (models) need help with posing,” she said. “I took many classes on posing. If you don’t have a good pose, it just doesn’t work and they look uncomfortable.”

Armendariz said she incorporates posing techniques into all of her photo shoots, which helps the women look more like the models they see in magazines.

“If you pose right and do the lighting right, you can look just as good (as a model in a magazine), probably even better,” she said.

While Armendariz said she does a few light touch ups on her photos, such as getting rid of fly-away hairs or clearing up acne, they are very minimal.

“It’s two minutes a photo,” she said. “You don’t want to spend hours and hours editing one photo. It just doesn’t make sense.”

Armendariz said photography started off as a hobby for her. She began seriously taking photographs when her daughter was born, after her long-time boyfriend gave her her first Nikon camera.

“She’s 9 right now, so when she was born she was my first little client, and those photos are embarrassing, but you learn,” she said. “It’s so cliché to say, but practice does help you get up there. In photography, there’s so much to learn. You’re constantly climbing that hill.”

Knowing that she couldn’t take orders from other people, Armendariz said she decided to start her own photography business.

Today, she pulls inspiration for her photography from images she sees in magazines, other photographers' work and techniques she’s learned via courses online.

“Simplicity is my best friend,” she said. “I’m not trying to stress out about the background or anything. A lot of photographers when they first start — and I know I did — I was like, if the background doesn’t look nice then I don’t have a good photo, but now I’d rather choose a plain white backdrop to work on the subject. It looks way better.”

Armendariz’s business philosophy is "dream big, create every day, love always,” she said.

Outside of the office

Armendariz said she values being able to do things outside of photography as well.

“I workout every day, I read, I write, I draw,” she said.

Armendariz said she enjoys writing songs, which she has been interested in since she was a young girl.

She also recently took an intern from Alma d ‘Arte Charter High School (her former high school) under her wing.

“She’s going to be helping me out,” she said. “I’m going to be teaching her lighting right now so she can help me on Sunday’s photo shoot.”

For more information about Emibloom Photography and pricing, visit emibloom.com or call 575-805-8420.

Alexia Severson is a features reporter and may be reached at 575-541-5462 and aseverson@lcsun-news.com. Follow her @AlexiaMSeverson on Twitter.